Our costume consisted of pieces of clothing that didn’t go together. Colours that clashed and styles that were contrasting all emphasised the idea that love doesn’t always fit. Clothing was one example of something in society that had to be ‘perfect’, and had to match. By having a costume that didn’t conform to this idea, we were showing that it’s not the end of the world if things don’t work out. Although modern in parts, did not fit strictly into any specific time period. There were elements from a wide range of contexts, such as waistcoats combined with Hawaiian shirts. This meant that we were not setting our piece in a certain time period, and therefore were enabling the audience to recognise the timelessness of blind love.
We wanted to use simplistic lighting in our piece, with only changed for tone. Mostly, we used Brechtian-style stark, bright lights to reflect the high-energy, fast-moving tone of our piece, but particularly near the end, we used darker, softer lighting when the atmosphere was far calmer. This went aloneside “Dawn” by the Cinematic Orchestra in the final scene and echoed its sense of closure.
Symbolism played a major part in out production. We did not want to simply state our concept, but instead to communicate it to the audience in more subtle ways that required their focus and thought. One recurring piece of symbolism we used was the idea of a mask. In the opening scene, we created a visual metaphor of a rape. Rape is the most extreme form of love – it is a skewed version of the act of love-making. We wanted to start with this as it was the most powerful of the circumstances that involved blind love. The mask was put on the ‘victim’, and for the only time in the play, it was used literally. From them on, we continued to use this symbol of blind love, yet using our hands. Having a regular symbol such as this reinforced our concept to the audience as we put the mask in front of the faces of blind characters such as Helena in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, yet took it away from people with a sense of vision such as Nora in the final scene of A Doll’s House.
Our group were all very passionate about using physical theatre; we had been inspired by productions such as Kneehigh Theatre’s ‘Tristan and Yseult’, and definitely wanted to integrate elements of physical work into our piece. We felt by using this type of theatre, we could create more powerful images, and complete become our characters. Our bodies have so much potential to be used, and characterisation is made vastly easier and more effective when using them. The Midsummer Night’s Dream scenes involved four of the group members repeatedly picking me up, and moving me backwards, in an attempt to let the character of Demetrius escape from a desperate Helena. These characters represented us as directors – people that wanted society to see the realities of love. Physically picking Helena up was not only humorous, as it showed that she had a lack of control, but reinforced our concept. The chorus were constantly changing into different elements of Demetrius and Helena’s world; acting as the forest, walls, and the wind, relentlessly preventing Helena making any progress with Demetrius, both physically and emotionally.
Berkoff’s idea that [a set] “should be able to melt in an instant and never represent a heavy piece of pseudo-reality” was also reflected in our design for staging. We used seven blocks as part of our set and only one mask as a prop. By having so little on stage, we forced the audience to focus solely on us as performers without the distraction of a naturalistic set.
Our group was involved in a link with the Royal Shakespeare Theatre where we explored many aspects of A Midsummer Night’s Dream using different dramatic techniques. We learnt in one session about the use of masks, and how they can and should be used. It linked particularly well with our concept, as masks were a clear symbol of obstruction, and of a defence mechanism. People who were blind to love employed this mask, and refused to see past it. Therefore, we used this idea in our performance, using our hands as masks rather than having to rely on props. We did, however, use an actual mask in the opening scene as a clear introduction to our concept. The following scenes did not then need to use the mask literally, as the audience could make the link to the first scene. The opening rape metaphor used the mask as a way of de-personalising the victim, and taking away their identity. An important aspect of mask-work that we learnt was that they should never be taken off in front of an audience. We complied with this, and when Ele wore it, she turned facing the back wall of the stage, and then used the mask to move the other group members. This reinforced the idea that the mask, and therefore the blind-ness of love was so controlling “Love is blind and lovers cannot see the pretty follies that themselves commit.”
Music was used rarely, but appropriately in our production. When music was used, it showed a certain importance to a scene as there were only three pieces of music used. Jose Gonzalez’s ‘Lovestain’ was our opening music, which contained the repeated lyrics “You left a lovestain on my heart, you left a bloodstain on the ground; but blood comes off easily.” This communicated the permanence of love, and in particular, of the impact of rape. This was played alongside the initial rape metaphor, and its almost hypnotic acoustic guitar picking added a sinister element. This immediately set the tone of the scene, and created tension for the audience. Audience feedback supported the effectiveness of this particular piece of music. Similarly, in the closing scene of our performance, ‘Dawn’ by the Cinematic Orchestra was used. The tone of this music was far calmer, and had a sense of acceptance and closure to it. It was used as a background for the closing lines of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 148 which had some of the most important lines in terms of the overall concept “O me, what eyes hath Love put in my head, Which have no correspondence with true sight!” It seemed to make the lines more powerful, and bring the performance to a natural close.
